" (Huang & Chen, 1) This characterization of using the budgetary process to play 'games' carries with it a negative connotation, which is driven by the inherently threatening implications of tying personal income to performance evaluation.
That said, budgetary clarity is among the most important features to creating and implementing an effective plan of operation in any context. This is to argue that there is never an excuse for a failure to properly budget. This is a primary purpose of accounting, which allows an organization to identify those resources and conditions at its disposal and to determine how these can be used to yield functional operation, sustainability and profitability. Though the numbers which are yielded from a projected budget cannot be used as restraints with respect to operational creativity or mutability, these should at least help to establish a plan of action; anticipate certain milestones in the execution of the plan; to project a time line based on projected expenses and revenue; and to use these figures to approximate how close an organization is to its goals and ambitions. The budget will be a key instrument in identifying long-term goals while simultaneously tracking short-term goals.
There are still likely to be negative outcomes, especially were budgetary processes are inevitably tied to the income of individual team members. In such instances, negative periods in the budgetary life of an organization will have a distinct impact on the attitude and moral of workers. Therefore, the correlation between...
The budget must, above all else, be seen as a foundational instrument to understanding an organization's fiscal and practical status that is subject to alteration and flexibility within the context of the real-world business environment.
Works Cited:
Hope, T. (1997). Competing in the Third Wave. Harvard Business Press.
Huang, C. & Chen, M. (2008). Relationships among budgetary leadership behavior, managerial budgeting games, and budgetary attitudes: Evidence from Taiwanese corporations. ScienceDirect. Online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W58-4VDSJS0-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=987186959&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=570424efa71791707f3c9fc21199de67
Walker, K.B. & Johnson, E.N. (1999). The effects of a budget-based incentive compensation scheme on the budgeting behavior of managers and subordinates. Journal of Management Accounting Research 11, 1-28.
